RESIDENTS in Runnymede are being asked for their views on the council’s strategy for planning and development over the next 20 years.

The Core Strategy sets out the need to plan for more than 5,000 new homes in the borough over the next two decades, along with dealing with the threat of flooding and the need to enhance town centres and support the local economy.

A consultation on the strategy opened on Friday and runs until the end of July, and residents can have their say by writing to the council or filling in a form on the website .

Residents in Englefield Green and Virginia Water expressed mixed views about council’s role in the future of the area.

Richard Lewis, a retired teacher who lives in Virginia Water, said: “I think new housing development is just a way of life in Surrey nowadays. We’ve got a growing population and the government has targets for new homes. The council has to plan for that."

But Janet Rose, who lives close to the former DERA site near Longcross where 2,500 homes are slated to be built, said the government’s housing targets would begin to encroach on the Surrey countryside.

“At the moment these plans are for brownfield places but eventually we will run out of space and houses will be built on countryside that should be left alone,” she said.

The council’s preferred options for the Core Strategy include plans to make use of previously undeveloped land in urban areas of Addlestone, Chertsey and Egham, while “protecting and enhancing Runnymede’s open spaces [and] conserving their biodiversity.”

The authority held a similar consultation at this time last year, encouraging residents to complete an online questionnaire on the Issues and Options surrounding the Core Strategy.

On the subject of future housing, 65% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that any new development should be in accessible, urban locations rather than on green belt land.

More than 70% agreed that new housing should be located in areas that had a lower risk of flooding, and this again forms part of the current consultation.

The Environment Agency recently ranked Runnymede as ninth in its top 10 local authorities with the highest number of properties (7,007) with a significant chance of flooding:

To see a summary of the council’s preferred approaches to the Core Strategy, click here .